The nineteenth of a series of IEEE workshops on Machine Learning for Signal Processing will be held in Grenoble, France. In the 18th century, Grenoble and its area played a leading role in the French revolution. Its recent history is dominated by sciences and technology expansion, hydraulic and electrical engineering, paper industry, micro- and nano-technologies. With over than 15,000 researchers, Grenoble is the second French scientific center. This includes public research as well as large private research centers, the center for Atomic Research, and international facilities like European synchrotron.
In addition to science, the mountain environment is essential, too. The winter Olympic Games were organized in Grenoble in 1968, and the city applies to host the 2018 winter Olympic Games. The city and the neighboring towns represent about 580,000 inhabitants, but Grenoble itself only 170,000. The dynamism of the city is also due to its large university, its higher schools of engineers and architecture, with more than 60,000 students. Among these students, about 15% are foreign students.
Grenoble is a very flat city, typical in alpin valley, surrounded by three mountain chains, Chartreuse on the north, Belledonne on the east and Vercors on the south. It is crossed by two rivers, coming from the Alps, namely Isère and Drac. Grenoble is famous for its museums, especially its regional museum (musée Dauphinois) and its art museum, and for its cable car (called « eggs » or « bubbles » due to its spherical shape).